Quality education

“Kevin Rudd and Labor have a plan for our country’s economy when the mining boom ends. And this plan doesn't leave our kids out in the cold. It’s about providing real career paths to trades and apprenticeships.” – Bob Debus

Australia needs an Education Revolution to awake from the educational neglect and inertia of the Howard years. Only new ideas and new leadership on education can build the highly-skilled workforce required to ensure continued prosperity and opportunity for Australia’s working families.

A Rudd Labor Government will:
1. Invest more than $2.5 billion over the next decade to lift secondary school retention rates and create a national system of high-quality vocational education and training opportunities in secondary schools
2. Provide $111 million to encourage students to study maths and sciences at university and use these skills in teaching
3. Establish new trade centres in each of Australia’s 2650 secondary schools, providing state-of-the-art workshops, information and communication technology facilities and equipment
4. Invest $450 million into universal right-of-access for all four-year-olds to 15 hours a week of high-quality early childhood education
5. Guarantee one day a week of on-the-job training to all Vocational Education and Training students in secondary schools
6. Fund a pilot program to build shared facilities (such as science labs, sports fields, libraries and workshops) for government and non-government schools
7. Establish a national educational curriculum in partnership with State and Territory governments

Raising the Skill Level

Australia is seriously short of skilled workers. Many businesses are struggling because they can’t find enough find staff. Australia needs an educated, highly skilled workforce to compete in a global economy, or else we risk becoming little more than China's coal mine and Japan's holiday beach. Australians are hard working but they need more opportunities to develop new skills for the modern economy.

Labor’s 10-year, $2.5 billion plan to create trade training centres in all of Australia's 2650 secondary schools offers up to one million young people a vocational education. Schools will be granted up to $1.5 million to build or upgrade trade workshops, computer labs and other facilities such as commercial kitchens. Labor will also invest $84 million over four years to ensure that students have one day a week of on-the-job training for 20 weeks a year.

Bob Debus sees the plan as a practical way of maximising opportunities for students who do not want to attend university.

“We must encourage more young people to finish Year 12,” said Bob. “Labor's plan gives students a career path to trades and apprenticeships and an incentive to graduate from high school.”